The State of Quality of Primary Education in India

Sahidul Ahmed
The key concern about education, in any formal educational system, of all time, has
been its quality. Every stake holder, direct or indirect, of education is concerned about its
quality. Guardians or parents, irrespective of their socio-economic status, want to educate
their children with best quality education which would add better value to the degrees their
wards acquire subject to the budget constraints. But what do we mean by ‘quality education?
How this quality is being assessed? What is the status of the quality of education in India?
This paper seeks to focus on these issues with respect to the quality of primary education in
India.

There is no universally accepted definition for ‘quality of education’. In education,

perception of quality is around students (Mukhopadhyay, 2001). The performance of the
students like examination results, learning achievements, ability to apply learned knowledge
in practical life-- exhibit the quality of an education. For some, “Quality of education” means
value addition in education (Feigenbaum 1951); excellence in education (Peters and
Waterman 1982); for others, fitness of education outcomes and experience for use (Juran and
Gryna 1988).

For a society, “excellence” and “value” are most appropriate indicators for quality
education. A generally accepted definition of quality education does not exist and different
end users adopt different criteria for determining the quality of education.
In this study we measure the quality of primary education on the basis of student learning
achievement (i.e., ability of read, write and do mathematics).

Primary Education: Universality vs Quality

The universal declaration of human rights (1948) considered primary
education as the basic human right of all people. Accordingly, all nations prioritized universal
access to education. The developed and developing countries have attained universal or near
universal access to primary education. Now the focus is on the quality of student learning.
The quality concern is not uniform across the nations. The developing and poor nations are
still striving for expansion of educational access. It has been established that access to
education and its quality are not sequential elements. At the sub-regional meeting of South
Asian Ministers in Katmandu in April 2001, quality education was unanimously identified as
a priority area. All participants were in agreement that there was an urgency to develop the
quality of education to meet the intermediate target and education for all by 2015. Because
how well pupil are taught and how much they learn can have a crucial impact on how long
they stay in school and how regularly they attend. Further whether parents send their children
to school at all is likely to depend on the judgment they make about the quality of teaching
and learning. Based on this perception parents decide whether attending school is worth the
time and cost for their children and for themselves. The World Bank (1997) suggested that
‘the best way to improve access is to improve quality which would make coming to school or
staying in school a more attractive option from the perspective of parents as well as children.
Moreover, efforts to improve quality will tend to increase the efficiency of the public
expenditure and will encourage parents to contribute children education’.
In the year 1950, when the Constitution of India was adopted, education was
recognized as a basic individual right. Directive Principles of State Policy, Article 45, states
that “the state shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from the
commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until
they complete the age of fourteen years” (The Constitution of India). In line with the
commitment of the country to provide elementary education to all children, educational
facilities have got tremendously expanded during the post independence period, especially in
primary stage. The number of primary school in India has increased from 2.2 lakhs in 1950-
51 to nearly 7 lakhs in 2004-05. In addition, there are at present nearly 3 lakhs non-formal
education centres providing primary level education to out-of-school children in the age
group 9 to 14. This expansion has definitely helped in making primary level education more
easily accessible to a large section of children. As a result, the illiteracy rate and drop-out rate
at school stage have come down. The national literacy rate has increased from 52.21 per
cent in 1991 to 64.84 per cent in 2001.The drop-out rate has also declined from 64.9 per
cent in 1960-61 to 29 per cent in 2004-2005. Although the literacy rates for both males and
females have increased, the latter still continues to lag behind the former. However, there has
been a narrowing of the male-female gap in literacy from 24.8 percentage point in 1991 to
21.7 percentage point in 2001(Selected Educational Statistics 2004-05).
Primary education is the first stage of formal education. The main objective of quality
primary education is to inculcate basic knowledge about reading, writing and arithmetic
among the children. It is expected that after the successful completion of the primary level of
education, a pupil should be able to read, write, and solve simple arithmetic problem.
A study conducted by the Teamlease Services has revealed a very disappointing scenario of
primary education in India. The study was conducted in primary schools in all the States of
India (excluding Union Territories, Mizoram, Sikkim) to measure the learning achievement
(quality) of students in language and mathematics. This study found that in India after
completion of primary level education, 11 per cent student were not able to recognize
anything, 14.1 per cent can recognize only letters, 14.9 per cent can read a word, 17 per cent
can read a paragraph of a story and only 42.8 per cent can read the complete story (Table 1).
Table 1
School Children who can read-standard-wise (IV)
(in per cent)
State Nothing Letters Word One-Para Complete
of the story story
Andhra 8.8 10.5 15.6 17.7 47.35
Pradesh
Arunachal 7.2 13.5 21.6 13.3 44.4
Pradesh
Assam 10.8 15.5 20.2 21.2 32.3
 Bihar 14.9 15.2 12.8 14.8 42.3
Goa 6 6.1 12.9 24.2 56.2
Gujarat 7.2 12.4 18.9 18.6 42.9
Haryana 8.5 12.1 12.7 16.1 50.7
Himachal 3.5 14.9 11.8 14.5 55.35
Pradesh
Jammu & 3.4 10.2 26.5 20.8 39.1
Kashmir
Karnataka 5.4 12.1 17.7 19.0 45.9
Kerala 3.2 3.7 10.7 11.3 71.1
Madhya 15.7 15.3 15.5 17.1 36.5
Pradesh
Maharashtra 7 12.1 13.0 17.4 50.45
Manipur 10.6 10.7 18.7 15.7 44.4
Meghalaya 9 8.9 22.0 8.9 59.5
Nagaland 3.1 16.5 21.7 255.6 33.2
Orissa 12.4 15.0 13.5 15.05 44.2
Punjab 8.9 15.3 15.1 17.85 42.8
Rajasthan 15.8 13.2 12.7 14.95 43.6
Tamil Nadu 10.3 11.4 17.5 17.3 43.6
Tripura 1.0 7.3 11.7 16.8 63.4
Utter Pradesh 16.8 19.2 14.6 14.8 34.6
West Bengal 4.3 12.3 13.8 24.6 44.9
Chhattisgarh 7.3 16.0 15.0 15.5 46.4
Jharkhand 13.8 16.9 15.5 15.4 38.5
Uttaranchal 6.8 13.0 11.2 13.3 55.7
All India 11.0 14.1 14.9 17.0 42.8
Source: India Labour Report 2007

The condition of students learning achievement (quality) is extremely poor in mathematics

compare to language. This study found that after the successful completion of the primary
level education, 18.6 per cent children could not recognize the numbers, 26.7 per cent
children can recognize the numbers but not able to do addition or subtraction, 23.9 per cent
children only can do subtraction, and only 30.7 per cent children can do addition, subtraction
as well as division. Table 2 contains data relating to mathematical learning achievement
(quality) in all Indian states.
 Table 2
All school children who can solve written numerical sums standard-wise (IV)
(in per cent)
State Nothing Number Subtraction Division
recognition
Andhra Pradesh 11.9 25.7 26.5 35.9
Arunachal 7.6 21.1 31.3 40.1
Pradesh
Assam 22.1 28.1 25.7 24.0
Bihar 22.6 21.1 21.4 35.0
Goa 5.6 24.8 32.5 36.8
Gujarat 16. 27.3 22.2 34.3
Haryana 13.8 19.6 20.7 45.9
Himachal 5.8 26.2 21.0 47.0
Pradesh
Jammu & 5.0 29.6 25.1 40.3
Kashmir
Karnataka 8.6 36.0 31.4 24.0
Kerala 4.9 22.8 25.7 46.6
Madhya 20.5 28.8 23.2 27.5
Pradesh
Maharashtra 17.5 31.8 23.9 26.7
Manipur 14.4 24.7 26.9 34.0
Meghalaya 10.1 25.2 27.6 37.2
Nagaland 7.6 33.4 36.4 22.5
Orissa 24.0 26.8 25.3 23.8
Punjab 14.7 25.8 27.0 32.5
Rajasthan 23.9. 23.2 18.7 34.2
Tamil Nadu 14.0 30.2 28.1 27.7
Tripura 5.9 17.1 37.4 39.6
Utter Pradesh 30.3 27.2 19.8 22.8
West Bengal 7.8 21.7 28.0 42.5
Chhattisgarh 14.8 28.0 23.5 33.8
Jharkhand 24.0 25.3 24.2 26.5
Uttaranchal 10.0 27.8 25.1 37.1
All India 18.6 26.7 23.9 30.7
Source:India Labour Report 2007
This is the scenario of primary education in India where students are not in a position to read,
write and do a simple arithmetic problem even after completing the primary level education.
The learning achievement of the student is very poor in all Indian states whether it is
educationally backward or forward.
The National Knowledge Commission (2007) has been emphasizing on ‘quality
primary education’ for making India as a knowledge society in the world. The quality of
education mainly depends upon physical infrastructure, qualified and competent teachers,
curriculum and instructional materials, support materials and equipments, teaching learning
strategies, comprehensive and continuous evaluation and effective management.
Unfortunately in our country, where 90 per cent of our primary schools are run by
government, most of them are situated in rural areas, lack the average criteria for quality
education. The low learning achievement problem in India mostly due to the combination of
following factors:
• Most of the primary schools are shelterless.
• The schools with buildings have insufficient accommodation.
• Students mostly sit on mats/tats.
• High pupil-teacher ratio.
• Textbooks for teachers, which contain the methods for teaching for every unit of the
curriculum, are not provided in time.
• Teaching aids are very old. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is still
not used for teaching in primary education which is recognized as very effective for
learning.
• The teachers of public schools often participate in political activity or other profitable
activity rather than concentrating in teaching the pupils.
• Most of rural areas of India have their own local dialect. In many states the use of
mother tongue as medium of instruction is not followed strictly. This is particularly so
in case of the students belonging to linguistic minorities. The students belonging to the
linguistic minorities have to study in the language of the linguistic majority of the state.
• Political nature of appointment of the primary teachers is largely responsible for poor
quality of teaching.
• Resource materials are never provided in adequate quantity.
• Community support is at the very low.
• A high absentee rate of the students in primary school particularly in rural areas.
• Co-curricular activities have not been given due importance as the teachers of the
primary schools particularly of public schools and rural areas consider them as wastage
of valuable time. As a result, making learning a fun for the students is not done.
• Inspection system for primary education has become only a ritual.
 •Curriculum of primary education is hardly matches the surroundings of the students in
which they live. As a result, students often suffer from fish-out-of-water syndrome
leading to a high drop-out rate.
For quality improvement, we have to re-think about the idea, structure and system of
primary education which have very crucial motivating effects on the students. The teaching–
learning environment and quality of education are so unsatisfactory particularly in
government controlled primary schools that teachers of those schools themselves prefer to
arrange education for their children in a better run school in private sector. The elite and rich
groups of the society or village enroll their children in private schools where quality is
presumed to be far better than the government schools. So the clients of these public schools
are the poorest of the poor, economically and socially downtrodden people. The stakeholders
of these schools being weak and vulnerable cannot ensure accountability of the system for
quality education. The elite groups are not concerned about this, as their children are safe in
private schools. The marginal groups of the society or villages are not in a position to enroll
their children in private schools which provide quality education. Due to the economic factor
they have to enroll their children in government run primary schools where quality is very
poor. So the children belonging to marginal groups are deprived from good quality education
and as a result they can hardly climb ladder of development. To overcome this problem,
government should implement the voucher system, especially in case of primary education.
Suppose government spends Rs.2000 per child per year for their primary education, under the
voucher system of education the government should give voucher of Rs.2000 per child to
parents, who can use this voucher to pay fees for schools of their choice. So that the children
of marginal groups also get the opportunity to access to good quality primary education and
can develop their standard of living. This needs to be done in the larger interest of rural India
and particularly for the poor who are worst affected due to the degradation of quality of the
government primary schools. Besides the introduction of the voucher system, it is also
important to revamp the public sector education system with a particular focus on the quality
of primary education.
For improving quality, the concerned authorities need to emphasis on the following
issues:
•Early childhood education is extremely important and must be universalized.
•A relevant curriculum.
•Accurate assessment of learning outcomes.
•Participatory management of education system.
•Engaging local communities.
•Using ICT in teaching learning process
•Training of teachers and administrators of ICT.
•District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs) and State Council of Educational
Research and Training (SCERT) need to be more strengthened and undergo structural
changes.
 •Establishment of a National Primary Education Assessment system like National
Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for Higher education.
•Strengthening the teacher training institution.
• Reform in examination system.
•Proficiency in English is widely perceived as an important avenue for employment
and upward knowledge, which also greatly facilitates the pursuit of higher education.
English should be incorporated into the curriculum of primary schools as a language
subject.
•Special strategies needs to be devised to ensure greater access to schools for children
in backward regions, remote locations, children belonging to SC/ST and Muslim
communities and other backward caste (OBC).
•Substantially higher public spending is required for quality primary education.
• There should be transparent, norm-based and straightforward procedures for the
recognition of private schools.
•Community participating in monitoring the primary education.
• Parent-teacher association.
•Rigorous implementation of the inspection system.
•Optimizing the pupil teacher ratio.
•Developing new teaching learning strategies.
•Developing the infrastructure of primary education.
•Appointment of duly qualified teachers in primary level.
• Appointment of female teachers and teachers in disadvantaged and rural areas. Local
qualified applicants need to be preferred.
•District based educational planning and implementation body needs to be formed.

Concluding remarks

It appears from the empirical study that quality of primary education has been
compromised for its universality in India. Operation Black Board, District Primary Education
Project, National Literacy Programme, Sarvha Shiksha Abhiyan—all aim at universalizing. It
is time that the nation pays heed to the quality dimension. As it has already been pointed out,
quality indirectly helps in making the quantity. As a result, quality improvement programmes
need to be devised for all levels—national, state and district.
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